Continue reading »]]> 11/16 9:25 PM – This will be it for me. I slept for five hours, and will have slated a total of 20 basketball watching hours over the last 25 or so. MSU is finishing up over South Carolina. State has played sloppy over the past 10 minutes, coasting to a win. I will finish up the night by watching the end of San Diego State vs Gonzaga. It’s been fun watching and twittering with a few of you out there. The season is officially here. I have basketball on the brain and I cannot help it. Good talk fellas.

11/16 5:52 PM – I’ve been able to watch three teams UNLV will play non-con this year: Louisville, Tulsa, and Kansas State. I think UNLV will be able to hang with Louisville. Should beat Tulsa, and will probably get owned by Kansas State. Butler looking pretty brutal without #toobigyo. Howard just get into foul trouble and everything rests on Mack’s shoulders to carry the team now. Michigan State coming up next, then Gonzaga and SDSU.

11/16 5:31 PM – Butler playing their same game. Louisville now plays in the house that Kentucky Fried Chicken built. There are people in the stands wearing empty chicken buckets as hats. I am winding down again, all this watching basketball takes a lot out of you.

11/16 4:39 PM – It has been an ejoyable afternoon of basketball watching. Kansas State won a highly contested game vs Virginia Tech. Don’t let the score fool you. After, I have had the exciting prospect to watch Ohio State and Florida play. Gag me. Ohio State looks really good though. 69-63 8:55 2H.

11/16 1:12 PM – Watched LaSalle and Baylor, wasn’t a bad game overall. Baylor is athletic and they are in Waco, which looks like a dusty town. Now, I have Bobby Knight calling the game between Va Tech and Kansas State. Jacob Pullen has two early fouls, and Wally Judge is hurt. It’s ok though, as both teams are shooting a ton of bad 3′s early.

11/16 10:15 AM – I am back. UNLV will be playing Tulsa in the 76 Classic next week. They look pretty good, even tho they did lose to App. St. Oral Roberts had a giant bird mascot and will consume your soul. Big white kid for Tulsa looks pretty solid.

11/16 4:05 AM – Out like a thief in the night. (Seeing that I woke up at 6AM local time, it is obvious I could have gone for the full 24 hours straight. However, that would have put me in a bad spot to have my wits about me for the evening games with have MSU playing South Carolina, and Gonzaga against SDSU. So I made a decision to bail for a few hours of sleep.)

11/16 3:13 AM – 5.9 seconds left and Hawaii has the ball, up 1. Looks decent for the Rainbow Warriors to send Central packing. Bring me a new game and a meal that won’t make me sluggish. I have much more to go. 21 hours up. 15 to go.

11/16 3:07 AM – Rainbow Warriors up 1 with 1:30 left and headed to the line. They’ll shoot the ft’s as I type this. I’m so tired of this crap game and these guys jerking off Trey Ziegler. It’s horrible. Hawaii split the free throws and its a two point lead, Central ball. The suspense is killing me, I’m going to go get a mini cheese out of the fridge.

11/16 2:42 AM – Central Michigan vs Hawaii is the worst basketball game of all time. Tre Ziegler had his boys try to start a fight, and they collected a bunch of indian casino money. Hawaii is up 3 right now. I am hoping they extend this lead and send the MAC’s gangster program back on their turbo prop airplane back to the farmland of Michigan to lose 15 MAC games this year.

11/16 1:43 AM – Central Michigan is horrible at basketball, and this is against a horrible Hawaii team. Tre Ziegler is not the answer, and now he lives in an indian casino town. good choice bucko. Hawaii should play in an open air basketball arena. Hawaii 25, Central Michigan 28. WTF?

11/16 1:14 AM – SMC is going to pull this out. Lavin will bring the Johnnies back, just not this year. 63-53 with 1:05 left. Next game on tap is Central Michigan at Hawaii. Go Warriors.

11/16 12:43 AM – This guy from down under that plays for St. Mary’s has six 3′s tonight. You’d think Lavin would tell somebody to guard him. Dwayne Polee is really good, and I think he may be Natural Polee. The Gaels play on a volleyball court. This weird guy in a green shirt is trying to sell me on not drinking anymore. He looks like he fell off the Hale Bop comet. More to come.

11/15 11:53 PM – My dream is to upper deck a toilet in Provo, Utah. Johnnies up by a bucket early. Funner game to watch than the 1st. Bruno i sfreaking out right now.

11/15 11:32 PM – Memphis wins a snail game late with FT’s and such. Now it’s onto Saint Mary’s vs Saint Johns. Dwayne Polee plays for Steve Lavin and he should be playing for Lon Kruger. Dew #2 is coming up.

11/15 10:30 PM – Memphis comes out in the second half on a mission. Miami shooting a ton of deep three’s that aren’t going in. My wife just went to bed and my dog is dreaming of running through a forest chasing rabbits or something.

11/15 9:57 PM – Nobody can shoot it seems. Miami hanging around, getting after it in the paint on both sides. Headed to halftime, Memphis up 1, 38-37. About to hit my 1st Mountain Dew.

11/15 9:33 PM – The Raft is just great. Seriously. Talking about people leaving their underwear on the floor. I love it. Memphis vs Miami. Memphis has a guy who looks like a 50 year old heroin pusher (Garcia) playing the pivot, and two brothers who are running all over the place, and playing quite well. Miami has an athletic team of headband wearers and they’ve done nothing to stand out in a good way (Barton brothers) or bad (Garcia looking odd).

Continue reading »]]> I have been a fan of college basketball for as long as I can remember. From an early age I have loved this sport and have made an effort to get to any game I could. So on a recent vacation to Nevada and Arizona I made it a point to check out the local hoops scene (okay it was actually the point of the trip but don’t tell my lady friend she thinks we were visiting friends and family). I would encourage any sports fan to travel outside of their region and watch some random teams at least once in their lifetime. It can be an eye opening experience. For a guy who has lived in the midwest his entire life to see an Arizona State fan fly into a rage at jump ball call in a non conference game it’ll make me think twice about doging Pac 10 fans for being flighty, and disinterested.

My first stop was in Las Vegas to check out UNLV v. Kansas State at the Orleans Arena. The Orleans Arena is like Rhett’s personal venue since he was watched so many WCC, and exempt tourney games there since becoming westie, and he assured me that it was a different environment at the Thomas and Mack where UNLV usually plays its home games. I was a little apprehensive about the fan base when I saw a rebel fan in the parking lot with a sideways visor freestyle rapping next to a bunch of trucks and RVs but those concerns were quickly put to rest as the game began. Vegas is an entertainment town. There is tons to see and do, and if you are going to compete for the entertainment dollars in that town you have to put on a show. Even though they were not at their home arena the UNLV people did everything they could to make the game a spectacle. They had a pyrotechnics display and a celebrity video to fire up the crowd (it was Carrot Top though). The crowd was enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and very very intense. I thought the guy behind me was going to start challenging the Kansas State fans to meet him in the parking lot for either a fight or a rap battle. But the enthusiasm died down as the game wore on and K State started draining 3 pointers. That K State team is really good by the way. So I guess it isn’t fair to judge a fan base based on 1 game at a pseudo home arena when they are getting beat by double digits but I think they are passionate and in a certain sense demanding because there are so many other ways for them to be entertained if they choose. The passion can turn to frustration pretty quickly. But it looks like it is fun to root for UNLV when times are good.

The arena was literally in a casino, which was strange and you could get a beer which I did but didn’t really feel good about it. The program was tiny and free, and there were alot of people wearing vintage UNLV gear that they probably purchased when Anderson Hunt was a freshman. You could sense that most of the people who filled up this place were the diehards, and there was a pretty impressive contingent of Kansas State fans as well as a few cowboys. Not juiced in local cowboys, but actual cowboys in town with the rodeo. I won’t go into the specifics of the game because Rhett already did that but I will say once again K State is good and very impressive in person. It was a different environment than I was used to and I would like to go  back for a big conference game at the Thomas and Mack sometime.

With Arizona State I think I got the gist of what they are and what they can be with one trip and probably don’t need to go back. First off I think they used the same architect to build the Wells Fargo as they did to build Crisler Arena. It is a round, bland building with a few trophy cases and not much ambiance. It lacked the impressive collection of NIT banners that can be found at Crisler but you could build your own burrito at the concession stand so I guess that part is a wash.

I was there for the game against San Diego State and my old buddy Steve Fischer who has recreated his patented brand of undisciplined gangster ball on the west coast to finish out his tainted abortion of a career. They had 23 turnovers on the game and ended up on the losing end despite dominating on the glass 39-21. It was a sloppy 55-53 Arizona State victory that will probably be significant in March as both of these teams will  be someplace on the tournament bubble.

What I took away from this game and this fan base was a sense that Herb Sendeck is a very good coach who is building a program and the fans at ASU are lucky to have him since they aren’t exactly Kentucky. For a game against a good SDSU squad they had an announced attendance of 10,055. There is no way there were that many people there even though in all fairness most of the students were away for Christmas break and its a pro sports town full of transplants and good weather outside. The people that did show up were loud and enthusiastic even though it wasn’t always at the appropriate time, and seem hungry for a winner. I think they are a rising power in the Pac 10 and will supplant Arizona as the dominate team in that state very soon if they haven’t already. They are just an impact player away from making a real statement on the national scene as well.

So that is my feelings on the random places I visited to watch hoops on my vacation. I recommend strongly going to any random game when you are in a new town. Not only is it kind of fun and interesting but it makes you appreciate your home teams that much more. I know I can’t wait to get to the Convocation Center tonight in Ypsilanti to watch Samford take on Eastern Michigan. There is no place like home.